When Sharon says ‘look at this’ it’s always something on the ground. Honestly the woman must have a crick in her neck. She finds more, snakes, insects and money than anyone else I know. This time it was fungi.
We were on the Deer and Seal Photographic day the other week when my attention was drawn to what looked like a handful of those bobbly rubber finger mits used by bank clerks for counting cash. I had no idea of its name. Even the books I have on fungi didn’t reveal any identity; we poured over them for hours. Eventually I gave in and called in the experts.
Tony Leech is a lovely chap and he has the distinguished title of Norfolk Fungi recorder; even he struggled. I felt vindicated. Eventually Richard Shotbolt came to our rescue.
Our specimen is Cystoderma granulosum, by no means a common fungus with just four previous Norfolk records. The ‘warts’ apparently fall off as the fungus matures – so all the fungi in the shot are the same species. None of the field guides show the young stage and very few pictures on Google images show it. I am told the photo is probably the first to show the two stages together.
Letter From Norfolk 